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Why AroAce Jughead Is Important: A Third Update (Yes Seriously)

I can’t believe I’m here again, this is the fourth post now about this subject and STILL nothing has been done about it. This blog post is gonna focus mainly on two things 1) a certain tweet from Archie Comics on twitter and 2) the new Jughead writer.

Yes we are still being ignored, yes we are still trying our damn hardest and nothing is coming out of it, but you know what isn’t being ignored? Jughead’s love for burgers. Yes hallelujah thank god his love for burger eating isn’t being erased (note: sarcasm). If you are wondering what the heck I’m going on about I’m talking about this tweet from Archie Comics on Twitter:

This really fueled the fire within me, because not only where we being ignored it seems that the source cares more about the erasure of something Jughead loves over something that makes him who he is, his aroaceness. Don’t get me wrong I know that Jughead’s love for burgers is a part of his character (Lauren you just contradicted yourself here) but to be honest that’s not what we care about, you could change his lover for burgers to the love for cabbage and no one would probably care. What we care about is the erasure of his aroaceness, the erasure of real people, the erasure of something that meant so much to people, so many people saw themselves in Jughead just because of this. Riverdale took representation from us, no one finds representation in burgers. I am not a burger who wants to be represented on TV, I’m an aroace who deserves their representation that was given to us in the comics play out on the TV screen.

I’ve said this so many times but by taking away our representation you are telling us that romance is the most important thing in life, and that you need to find a partner. I know this is going slightly off topic but the interview that Cole had where he says Jughead will have “relationships with women” is very out of character for Jughead. He literally says he doesn’t like to date, how can you misread that? We are not “boring” or “no fun” to write about. A character should reflect real life and not everyone’s endgame is marriage, kids, or romantic love. We are human too. We are not broken toys that need to be fixed. That is the message erasing Jughead’s aroaceness is reflecting on the aro and ace communities. That being said aroaces can have romantic relationships I’m not saying that Jughead himself can’t, what we want is just the confirmation that he is aroace in the show. That’s it. We want Jughead himself to say four words. “I’m aromantic and asexual”. It’s not hard.

The second thing I want to talk about is the new Jughead comics writer. He is an aphobe. So not only are we losing our representation in the show there’s a high chance we could lose it in the comics too. This is what the writer Mark Waid said about Tr.mp on twitter.

This is so insulting to the ace community, in so many ways. I can’t even begin to tell you how this made me feel. This was written sixteen days ago. This is the person who is now in charge of a comic where the main character is asexual. Not only has he offended a whole community he’s got the whole basis of asexuality wrong. Even if, and that’s a BIG if, Tr.mp was asexual why would he “try 2 convince us of sexual prowess” when most asexuals are sex repulsed or sex indifferent? Personally it makes me feel disgusted, just by this tweet he’s branded a whole community on the actions of a man who probably isn’t even asexual. And this man is going to be writing the comics for one of the most iconic aroace characters? Please Archie Comics reconsider.

I really don’t want to go through this all again, I don’t want to experience the loss of my representation through THE SAME CHARACTER just on two different fronts. I don’t want to have to start using #AroAceJugheadOrBust for the comics as well. I want my representation to stay. Riverdale broke me enough, I don’t want to experience it a second time. Aroace Jughead means so much to a lot of people because he’s all we’ve got.

There’s three (possibly four but this one is a bit iffy with the confirmation coming from twitter and not the source material, according to the fandom) characters that I’ve always seen or known as aroace (as in clearly shown as not interested in romance or sex, or used pretty much the definitions of asexuality and/or aromanticism without using the words “asexual” or “aromantic”) and I’ve nearly lost them all. None of them, none of them are aroace in their shows, even if the character is said to be aroace in their source material. Aroace erasure isn’t a new thing, the clearest one that I know about started back in 2012, with a writer who writes two shows I watched, but that’s not what this post is about, that’s an entire different post. I just want people, not just Archie comics and the Riverdale writers, to listen to us, to fight with us. To stand with us. And stop this erasure from happening, but from what I’ve seen from the past and the present it feels like we are fighting alone.

Even if we have to fight alone I will fight until the end. Jughead Jones is aroace end of story. Nothing can change that. And we will make sure that you know it too.

Update: Mark’s tweet has been deleted, but that doesn’t change the fact of what he’s said and his actions to what he’s done afterwards. He says that he’s a listener but continues to block aces who voiced their concern about this tweet. So. Yeah.